232 THE VICAR OF MORWENSTOW In 1873 or ^74 the rector of Kilkhampton was about to go to Exeter to preach an ordination service in its cathedral. The vicar of Morwenstow said to him: £ Go, and bid the young men entering the holy ministry be honest, loyal, true.' Is that the exhorta- tion of a man conscious in his own heart that he is a traitor? One day, not long ago, he was in Kilkhampton, and entered the house of an old man, a builder, there. The old man said to him: 4 You know, Mr. Hawker, what names you have been called in your day. They have said you were a Roman Catholic.5 'Hockeridge,5 answered Mr. Hawker, standing in the midst of the floor, and speaking with emphasis, ' I am a priest of the Church, of the Church of God, of that Church which was hundreds of years in Cornwall before a Pope of Rome was thought of.5 A clergyman in the diocese of London, who knew him well, thus writes: I think I never read any announcement with greater surprise than that the late vicar of Morwenstow had, shortly before his death, been * received' into the Church of Rome. Mr. Hawker and I were intimate friends for a number of years, and there were few matters connected either with himself or those near and dear to him on which he did not honour me with his confidence. It was just a year ago that I spent some days with him, shortly after his visit to London, to collect funds for the restoration of his interesting church, among the scenes he loved so well; and I feel perfectly assured, had he then meditated such a step, or had he so much as allowed it to assume a form in his mind, however indefinite, it would have been among the subjects of our converse. Nothing, however, was more contrary to the fact. I am certain that at that time not an idea of such a thing occurred to him. I received most confidential letters from him down to a short period before his death; and there is not a line in them which hints at any change in those opinions which had not only become part of himself, but which, as oppor- tunity offered, he was accustomed to defend with no small amount either of logic or of learning. My friend ol-building account I am responsible for